Court Digest

New York
Judge: Postal service must timely process election mail
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service must live up to its responsibilities to timely process election mail by treating it as a priority, a New York judge ordered on Monday, adding that the agency’s workers should be permitted to make extra deliveries and work overtime near the November presidential election.

The written decision by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero came after several individuals, including candidates for public office, sued. They said President Donald Trump, the postal service and its new postmaster general were endangering election mail.

Marrero gave both sides until noon Friday to settle the case in a manner consistent with his findings.

If they fail, Marrero said he’ll impose an order that ensures postal workers can make late and extra trips as well as work overtime in late October and early November.

“The right to vote is too vital a value in our democracy to be left in a state of suspense in the minds of voters weeks before a presidential election, raising doubts as to whether their votes will ultimately be counted,” Marrero said. He ruled after conducting a hearing on Wednesday.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima, Washington, said he was issuing a nationwide preliminary injunction sought by 14 states that sued the Trump administration and the U.S. Postal Service, challenging the agency’s so-called “leave behind” policy.

The policy let trucks leave postal facilities on time regardless of whether there was more mail to load. States also sought to force the Postal Service to treat election mail as first-class mail.

The controversy regarding mail delivery arose as many more voters prepared to vote by mail this November because of the coronavirus pandemic. Multiple lawsuits have been filed.

Amid a growing controversy, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major donor to Trump and the GOP, suspended some changes that threatened to slow election mail, including the removal of iconic blue mailboxes in many cities and the decommissioning of mail processing machines. But he refused to reinstall the machines.

Marrero said Trump and DeJoy have made statements that give “rise to management and operational confusion, to directives that tend to generate uncertainty as to who is in charge of policies that ultimately could affect the reliability of absentee ballots, thus potentially discouraging voting by mail.”

“Conflicting, vague, and ambivalent managerial signals could also sow substantial doubt about whether the USPS is up to the task, whether it possesses the institutional will power and commitment to its historical mission, and so to handle the exceptional burden associated with a profoundly critical task in our democratic system, that of collecting and delivering election mail a few weeks from now,” Marrero said.

Messages seeking comment were left with spokespeople for the Postal Service.

A message for comment was also left with the U.S. Justice Department.

Nebraska
Man sentenced to 4 years in prison for child porn
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A south-central Nebraska man has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.

Robert Rose, 65, of Guide Rock, was sentenced last week in Lincoln's federal courthouse, federal prosecutors said in a news release Monday. He also was ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution, and he must register as a sex offender.

Nebraska State Patrol investigators searched Rose's home in July 2018 and found more than 600 sexually explicit images and videos of children — including infants and toddlers — on Rose's laptop, officials said.

Wisconsin
Man accused in 1976 double slaying to get another psych exam
MARINETTE, Wis. (AP) — A judge ordered another competency exam Monday for an 83-year-old man charged with killing a couple in a northeastern Wisconsin park in 1976.

An attorney for Raymand Vannieuwenhoven asked for a second opinion on the most recent psychiatric exam, which showed the defendant is competent to proceed with the case against him.

Vannieuwenhoven was arrested and charged last year in the long-unsolved fatal shootings of 25-year-old David Schuldes and 24-year-old Ellen Matheys in McClintock Park in Silver Cliff, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Milwaukee.

Marinette County Judge James Morrison ordered another exam, the results of which will be reviewed Oct. 12, WLUK-TV reported.

Vannieuwenhoven told the judge during a video appearance that he believes he is competent, online records indicate.

In March,  Morrison ruled  that Vannieuwenhoven did not understand the proceedings and could not assist in his own defense and ordered him to undergo inpatient treatment at Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison.

For decades, the widower and father of five children lived quietly among the 800 residents of Lakewood, a northeastern Wisconsin town surrounded by forests and small lakes.

Investigators didn't have any major leads until 2018, when a DNA lab in Virginia identified the genealogical background of the suspect. Investigators say tests of Vannieuwenhoven's DNA from a licked envelope matched DNA collected at the crime scene.

Florida
Sheriff’s deputy charged with soliciting 'inappropriate' photos
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff's deputy is facing a felony charge after investigators say he told a woman he would return her property if she sent him inappropriate photos.

Jacksonville police officer Brian Pace was arrested Sunday night and charged with soliciting a bribe, the Florida Times-Union reports.

According to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, the woman reported in May the theft of her cellphone and other property.

Pace, 36, contacted her and told her the property had been found. Investigators said he offered to return it if she would send him inappropriate photos over his cellphone.

She filed a complaint this month. Pace contacted to meet her Sunday night, but he was arrested when he arrived.

The 11-year veteran of the department resigned after his arrest. He was being held Monday at the Jacksonville jail while awaiting his initial court appearance. Jail records do not show if Pace has an attorney.

London
Meghan's lawyers deny she cooperated with royal book authors
LONDON (AP) — Lawyers for a British newspaper publisher that's being sued for invasion of privacy by the Duchess of Sussex argued Monday that she made personal information public by cooperating with the authors of a book about her relationship with Prince Harry.

The former Meghan Markle is suing the publisher of the Mail on Sunday and the MailOnline website over five articles that published portions of a handwritten letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, after her marriage to Harry in 2018.

Meghan, 39, is seeking damages from publisher Associated Newspapers Ltd. for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and data protection breaches.

Associated Newspapers is contesting the claim. At hearing Monday at the High Court in London, the publisher sought to amend its defense in light of a book about the couple published last month.

It said the book — "Finding Freedom" — "contains a great deal of detailed information about (Meghan's) personal life, including a number of passages referring to her relationship and communications with her father, and a section referring to the letter which is at the heart of this case."

Antony White, the lawyer for Associated Newspapers, said in written submissions that the book appeared to have been written with Meghan and Harry's "extensive cooperation."

Meghan's lawyers denied that she cooperated with the authors of the book, Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie

"The claimant and her husband did not collaborate with the authors on the book, nor were they interviewed for it, nor did they provide photographs to the authors for the book," Meghan's lawyer Justin Sherbrooke said in a written submission.

Monday's court session was the latest preliminary hearing in the high-cost, high-profile case. A full trial is currently scheduled to begin in January.

Following an earlier hearing in May, a judge dismissed parts of Meghan's claim, including allegations that Associated Newspapers acted "dishonestly" by leaving out certain parts of her letter to her father.

The judge also struck out allegations that the publisher deliberately stirred up issues between Meghan and her father and that it had an agenda in publishing intrusive articles about her.

Last month a judge ruled that the duchess can keep secret the names of five close friends who defended her anonymously in an American magazine against alleged U.K. media bullying.

High Court judge Mark Warby agreed, "for the time being at least," to grant Meghan's request to protect the anonymity of friends who defended her in the pages of a U.S. magazine in order to spare them a "frenzy of publicity" before the case comes to a full trial.

American actress Meghan Markle, star of TV legal drama "Suits," married Harry, grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, in a lavish ceremony at Windsor Castle in May 2018. Their son, Archie, was born the following year.

Early this year the couple announced they were quitting royal duties and moving to North America, citing what they said was unbearable intrusion and racist attitudes from the British media. They recently bought a house in Santa Barbara, California.

Maine
Lawsuit says state must do more to help voters amid pandemic
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Election advocates in Maine want a state judge to rule on the constitutionality of some of the state's elections systems, including whether absentee ballots must be counted if postmarked by Election Day.

The lawsuit was filed against Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap and Attorney General Aaron Frey to address election challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic. The case was scheduled for a Monday hearing at Kennebec County Superior Court.

The lawsuit contends voters' ability to cast ballots could be in jeopardy because of the pandemic and Maine's election systems. The plaintiffs wrote that a rapid shift to absentee voting in the wake of COVID-19 represents a significant change for Maine and that voters could be disenfranchised unless several absentee ballot and voter registration procedures are changed.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine filed a brief in support of the lawsuit. The ACLU said in a statement it's the state's responsibility to remove barriers to voting between now and Election Day. That includes providing prepaid return postage for absentee ballots, the group said.

Dunlap's office declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Florida
Governor seeks new penalties for violent protesters
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Violent protesters and looters would face new felonies under proposed legislation Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday.

Backed by sheriffs, police chiefs and the incoming Senate president and House speaker, DeSantis said the state is going to get tough on anyone who participates in disorderly protests that cause property damage or injury.

"Recently in our country we have seen attacks on law enforcement, we've seen disorder and tumult in many cities," DeSantis said. "This has been a really, really sad chapter in American history."

The proposed package would also strip municipalities of state money if they defund law enforcement. It would also create new penalties for people who harass people in restaurants, who tear down monuments or damage or destroy public property during a violent assembly. People from out of state would face enhanced penalties for participating.

While DeSantis said Florida hasn't seen the type of violent protests that have occurred in other states, he said he wants to make sure they don't happen.

"We need to do more in terms of a strong legislative response so we do not always have to play whack-a-mole any time you have situations like this develop," DeSantis said.